1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to the field of telecommunications. More particularly the invention relates to the field of multiplex communications. In still greater particularity, the invention relates to the provision of secured telephony in a coaxial cable network. By way of further characterization, but not by way of limitation thereto, the invention uses interdiction to prevent monitoring of a subscriber's telephone communications by another subscriber on the network.
2. Background Art
Information, and access to it, has received significant attention recently. The building of an “information highway” compared to the national interstate highway system begun in the 1950s has been made a national priority. There are currently three wireline transport elements available for such a highway: (1) fiber optic cable; (2) coaxial cable; and (3) twisted copper cable (“twisted pair”). Presently, twisted pair cable predominates, certainly in the local loop portion of telephone networks. Coaxial cable has been used widely by cable television companies. Both telephone companies and cable companies have made use of fiber optics for main or trunk line signal transport.
Fiber optic cable can carry more information over a greater distance than coaxial cable, while coaxial cable can carry more information over a greater distance than twisted pairs. Because twisted pair is the predominant local loop technology, at least in the telephone industry, attempts have been made to develop technologies which will increase the carrying capacity of copper. In reality, copper wire is a very efficient transport means for traditional telephony services.
Within the telephony industry, the term “broadband” denotes a very high digital line rate, such as the 156 Megabits per second (Mb/s) optical line rate of new SONET OC3-level fiber optic systems. The term “baseband” describes the original (unmodulated) form of the electrical or optical signal associated with a single service that is typically presented to the network by a subscriber, and the final form of that signal presented from the network to a subscriber. The baseband signal can be either analog or digital in form, and is further characterized as the direct electromagnetic representation of the base information to be transmitted, with no other carrier or subcarrier energy present. A baseband signal may be carried directly on a transmission line, such as a twisted pair of insulated copper wires or an optical fiber. A baseband signal may also be used to modulate a carrier signal for transmission on a variety of transmission systems (e.g., radio). In telecommunications, the term “passband” describes the range of frequency spectrum which can be passed at low transmission loss through a linear transmission system. Modulated carrier signals presented to such a system will be delivered in their original form with minimal loss and distortion, as long as such signals fall within the absolute limits of the passband range of frequencies and the dynamic range of signal amplitude for a given linear transmission system.
An example should help clarify the relationship between baseband and passband. The electrical signal that is present at a telephone jack during a conversation is the baseband electrical signal representation of the talker's voice. This baseband signal is typically transported to the telephony switching office by a twisted pair of insulated copper wires. At the central office, the signal goes through the switch and is typically converted to digital form and multiplexed in the time domain for transmission through baseband digital transmission systems that carry such signals on copper or fiber optic cables to other locations. The baseband digital transmission system may carry thousands of individual telephone calls on the same transmission line. Even though there are multiple calls in progress on the same transmission line, such a system is still defined as “baseband” because there is no modulation of a carrier or subcarrier signal anywhere in the system, and, at any given instant of time, there is only a single subscriber's signal actually present at a given point on the line. As the original talker's signal reaches the other switching office involved on the call, it is converted back to the original analog form and put on the copper pair connected to the far-end telephone set, once again in baseband form.
Passband techniques can also be used to provide telephony services. In cable television systems configured for telephony services, the baseband analog telephone signal is used to modulate a carrier signal. The modulated carrier signal can be assigned a particular frequency within the passband of the linear transmission system. A number of such modulated carrier signals, each assigned a different carrier frequency in the passband, can be transmitted all at the same time without mutual interference. At the far end, a selected modulated carrier signal must be demodulated to remove the carrier signal and recover the baseband signal associated with the service. If the linear transmission system is operating properly, the derived signal will be delivered to the far-end telephone set, once again in baseband form.
While there is technology that supports digital line rates on the order of 100 Mb/s for short-distance building twisted-pair wiring, the practical limit for traditional twisted pair copper plant in the loop environment (from the serving central office to the subscriber) is on the order of 1.5 Mb/s, at a maximum distance of about 12 kilofeet (KF). One emerging technology that is capable of attaining this practical limit for twisted pairs is known as High-speed Digital Subscriber Line (HDSL). A similar copper-based technology known as Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL) may permit the carriage of a 1.5 Mb/s downstream signal toward the subscriber and an upstream channel of perhaps 16 kilobits per second (Kb/s), all on a single copper pair, to within 18KF from the serving central office. Rather than modify its network to include more fiber and/or coaxial cable, at least one telephone company is deploying ADSL technology (USA Today Apr. 29, 1993, Page B 1).
While suited for their intended purpose, these emerging copper-based technologies carry some uncertainties and special restrictions that may reduce their applicability in copper loop plant. At this point, the best-case scenario indicates that such technology could be used only on nonloaded copper loops within 12KF (HDSL) and 18KF (ADSL), respectively. Thus, technology would be employable in substantially less than 100 percent of the present environment. Other limitations (e.g., within-sheath incompatibility with other services such as ISDN) will likely further reduce the maximum penetration percentage.
The maximum practical distance that true Broadband rates (e.g., 156 Mb/s and higher) can be supported on twisted pair copper plant is on the order of 100 feet. Given that the emerging HDSL and ADSL copper-based technologies provide line rates two orders of magnitude below true broadband rates, and then cover substantially less than 100 percent of the customer base in the best case, copper is clearly not practical as a true broadband technology solution.
Baseband signal compression techniques offer possibilities for leveraging the embedded copper plant for certain specific services. Baseband compression techniques that compress a standard movie entertainment television signal with “VCR-quality” into a 1.5 Mb/s channel (including audio) have been demonstrated, as well as lower-speed devices intended for videoconferencing and videotelephony applications. The apparent view is that a bearer-channel technology such as ADSL (described above) and a baseband compression technology, taken together, could offer a realistic alternative for video services requiring large bandwidth, allowing continued use of the existing copper plant and obviating the need for fiber-based or other broadband links.
Unfortunately, baseband compression techniques use a deliberate tradeoff of one or more technical parameters that can reasonably be “sacrificed” as having little or no effect on a given service. For example, low-bit-rate coders for voice and video obtain bandwidth efficiencies at the expense of transmission delay. A processing delay of perhaps a half-second through the encoding and decoding process will have little or no effect on one-way broadcast service, but may disturb the natural rhythm of speech in a two-way videotelephony application, making the two-way service awkward to use. Baseband compression techniques are narrowly designed for specific applications (e.g., videotelephony) within generic classes of service (e.g., video), do not provide complete transparency of any baseband digital signal.
Line coding compression techniques that may be used to provide ADSL capabilities offer bandwidth efficiencies in a variety of ways. In one category, Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM) techniques have been used to encode digital information for transmission on microwave radio systems and (more recently) channel slots on cable television systems. A 16-state QAM coder offers a 4 bits-per-Hertz (4B/Hz) efficiency; a 64-state QAM coder offers a 6 bits-per-Hertz (6B/Hz) efficiency. This simply means that an input digital signal at the rate of 1.5 Mb/s can be 16-state QAM-coded into an analog frequency spectrum of about 0.38 MegaHertz (MHz), making it possible to be transported on copper wire pairs over longer distances. Similar techniques are also possible on satellite and CATV systems, to provide both digital signal carriage and digital spectrum efficiencies on those media.
In summary, utilizing baseband signal compression techniques results in bandwidth efficiencies which are gained at the penalty of one or more technical parameters. Such a tradeoff may not be possible in the case of a different service on the same medium. In the case of wireline coding techniques that deal with the signal after baseband compression, technical complexity and cost generally limit it to 6B/Hz spectrum efficiency. Thus, copper-based systems such as HDSL and ADSL may find limited application in the telephone network. HDSL is actually a pure cost-saving loop alternative to facility arrangements that serve 1.5 Mb/s High-Capacity digital service (“HICAP”) customers. The cost savings are potentially realized by the ability to use assigned nonloaded pairs in the loop outside plant, rather than designed pairs, as well as going longer distances without outside plant repeaters.
ADSL technology could provide early market entry for limited VCR-quality video or other asymmetric 1.5 Mb/s applications. Advantages of ADSL include the use of existing copper plant facilities and maximization of network functionality. Disadvantages include the cost of settop converters which are not reusable after ADSL is obsoleted. Also, ADSL offers only single channel service. In addition, the service can only reach a limited number of customers and telephone service electrical noise can result in video distortion. ADSL is also subject to RF transmission interference over longer loops.
Fiber optic-based systems are preferable to copper-based networks even with HDSL or ADSL because of their high bit rate transport capability. Information services that require true broadband rates require fiber or coaxial cable technology, as a practical matter. Even low-end (i.e., POTS “plain old telephone service”) services will reflect a lower per-subscriber cost fiber, compared to present copper-based delivery systems. Specifically, fiber-based systems that provide residence telephony to groups of 4–8 subscribers with fiber to the curb (FTTC) are expected to achieve cost parity with copper in the near future. However, the cost to replace the existing copper plant in the U.S. with fiber optics is estimated at hundreds of billions of dollars. Thus the length of time required to achieve this conversion could be decades.
One possible alternative to fiber or copper networks is a hybrid network which utilizes existing facilities and employs fiber optics, coaxial cable and copper wiring. Such a network would allow the delivery of many advanced services and yet be more cost efficient to allow earlier conversion to a broadband network with significant fiber optic capability included. At least one company has announced plans for such a hybrid network (Denver Post, Apr. 24, 1993 Page C1).
In general, hybrid networks combine a telephony network and a video network. One drawback of such a network is some duplication of equipment required to transport the separate signals. That is, if, for example, the telephony services could be sent over the video network, then a substantial portion of the cost and complexity of the hybrid network could be eliminated. However, in order to send telephony and video signals over the same transport medium, the unique characteristics of each signal must be addressed. For video signals this is not as difficult as some of the issues surrounding transport of telephony signals. That is, video signals are generally sent in one direction, from the provider to the subscriber, while telephony requires two-way transport. As video evolves into interactive video, however, two-way video signal transport issues will also become significant.
Telephony, in addition to requiring two-way communication, has two other requirements not necessarily addressed by video networks: powering and privacy of communication. In video networks the power to operate the subscriber television set, for example, is provided by the subscriber. That is, the subscriber plugs his or her television and/or video cassette recorder into an electrical outlet which provides power in the subscriber location. In the event of a power outage, for whatever reason, the user is unable to view the television unless he or she has a backup source of power (i.e., battery or generator). Few people have such backup power. In telephony, on the other hand, subscribers expect phone service whether or not electricity is available. The following paragraphs discuss a history of power in the telephony network.
Telephones on the early manual networks had their own battery boxes which contained dry cells. These batteries were used to power the carbon granule microphones. In addition, a hand crank generator in the phone supplied the needed signaling to call others on the same line, or the operator. These two power sources within the telephone allowed a user to originate a call and to talk to other users. Neither of these sources were dependent upon household power, allowing calls to be placed even before rural electrification.
When automatic switching was introduced into the network, the battery box was replaced with a common battery located at the switch, including a common ringing voltage source. The central office switch also needed power to operate and make connections between users. Supplying power to each telephone allowed current flow and the timed interruption of that current (dial pulses) to signal the switch of the user's intentions. In addition, the busy state current could be used by the telephone to power the carbon microphone.
Because of the need to protect the switch and the telephone connections from service interruptions, the power plant at the central office was backed up with large wet cell batteries. These batteries in turn were often backed up with motor-generator sets. Several different voltages are used within the network, but the primary supply is −48 volt direct current (vdc) and ±105 volts at 20 Hz.
Over time as the telephone network grew in size and service penetration approached 100 percent, service availability (reliability) became one of the most important obligations of the network. For a time the telephones in users' homes belonged to the network and were maintained by the network owner. In the past 20 years the ownership of the telephone has changed again and carbon microphones aren't used anymore. However, the new electronic telephones with their silicon chips still rely on the network to supply power for call supervision and even for memory backup.
Service availability is a responsibility shared by the network and the user. The network is responsible for maintaining the switch and connecting trunks as well as testing and maintaining the individual lines to each user. The user also contributes to service availability by keeping the telephone on-hook when it is not needed, by maintaining premises wiring and terminal equipment in good repair, and by limiting the total quantity of equipment connected to one line.
Maintaining the batteries in the telephone's battery box was difficult. Thus network power is preferable. First of all, the financial cost associated with placing the terminal power back in the terminal equipment would be huge. The supply and maintenance of the needed batteries would either be forgotten (like those in smoke detectors) or would be eliminated. Both of these results would limit the user's service availability. The second reason that power will likely remain in the network is due to the regulatory bodies who are concerned with “life-line” services. This relates to phone service being perceived as a necessity as pointed out above. Basic telephone service is expected to be available to everyone at a reasonable cost 24 hours a day.
There are a few exceptions. Some services are powered by the user today. As more services are introduced in the future, the user equipment associated with these new services may also be non-network powered. One good example is Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) services, whether Basic or Primary Rate Interfaces. With ISDN, the network powers its portion of the circuit and the user powers the terminal equipment. Most data services also fall into this category.
Power can only be provided over a fiber optic network with great difficulty and expense. As discussed above, power can and is easily provided over a copper-based network. There are video systems today which utilize cable phone systems in which telephony is provided over a video network system. However, such systems require power supplied by the subscriber, usually in the form of AC power and (in some cases) batteries at the subscriber premises. In addition, adaptive hardware in the form of converter boxes are needed to utilize the phone system.
Safeguarding privacy of communications is a fundamental role in the telephone industry. This is required by law and violators are subject to heavy penalties. Telephone subscribers have the expectation that their usage and their communications will be kept confidential. The requirement for privacy extends to the identity of the parties to the communications, and even to the fact that the communications took place. Traditional loop plant architecture provides each subscriber a dedicated transmission path all the way back to the switching central office. Except for the deliberate case of multiparty service, the physical “star” topology ensures that every subscriber's communication is not available to others who are not a party to the communications. Referring to FIG. 1, a star type network architecture is shown. A star architecture is a physical point-to-multipoint arrangement. There are two types of star architectures. In FIG. 1A a private line type of star is shown. That is each of lines 1, 2, 3, . . . (n) is separate and distinct and provides a dedicated transmission path to the central office. In FIG. 1B a party line type of star is shown. In this case each of the parties commonly connected in this manner may listen to any of the others. There is no privacy. Such party line configurations, once common for cost reasons, are gradually being eliminated as networks are modernized.
Cable television systems are configured in a broadcast bus architecture, and all services carried on such systems are inherently available to all subscribers connected to the bus, including telephone channels carried in the passband. A logical bus type of architecture is illustrated in FIG. 2A. In a bus architecture all users share common bandwidth as in a party line star architecture. Generally, cable companies employ a “tree-and-branch” style bus architecture (FIG. 2B). This is essentially a logical bus on a tree and branch physical structure. Similarly, a party line architecture (FIG. 1B) is essentially a logical bus on a physical star. In any event, the bus style architecture used by cable companies, while sufficient for delivery of video services, does not ensure privacy of communications for telephony or interactive video services. While encryption techniques can be used to mitigate the potential problem, they add cost and are not foolproof. As interactive services that use voice-response units flourish, more mass-market customers will routinely be touchtoning such information as credit card numbers and PIN authorizations. Any bus-based architecture that provides telephony or interactive video services capability must incorporate means to ensure privacy of communications.
Finally, it is necessary to provide some means to segregate services (commonly termed “grooming” in the telephone industry) provided by the central office into two basic categories: “switched services” (e.g. POTS) that terminate on the line side of the central office switching machine; and “special services” (e.g. burglar alarm, program channel services, etc.) that terminate on other equipment in the central office. The segregation into these two categories is accomplished in modem telephone networks by the use of equipment that provides for Time Slot Interchange (TSI) of digital signals.
Modern digital switches recognize only signals which are transmitted in discrete digital rate and format. That is, the switch views the transmitted/received signal in 64 Kb/s increments. In order to make the signal intelligible to the switch, it must be presented in this basic format. For POTS, the switch expects to “see” a digital signal with a specific line code, line rate, ones density, frame format, and signaling bit convention, with other bits used for mu-law voice coding of the talker's voice. Special services signals are not usually in a form recognizable by the switch. Conventional networks use pulse code modulation techniques to convert from analog to digital and vice versa and then use time division multiplexing to order to sequence (package) a number of services in a common bit stream for transmission. Time division multiplexing divides the time during which each message is transmitted along the data link into discrete time intervals. Each port on the multiplexer is then sequentially sampled for the time interval and that data sample is transmitted sequentially or serially with a number of other data samples from other ports. A demultiplexer at the receiving end of the transmission then recombines the serially transmitted data into the port corresponding to the signal origin. While suited for its intended purpose, this type of transmission technique requires expensive time slot interchangers to reorder the time slots to separate switched services from special services. In addition, the TSI technique is not transparent to all of the bits. That is, the ability to perform certain functions such as cyclic redundancy check code (CRC6) on an end-to-end basis is lost with the TSI technique.